How to Drill Sea Glass

For our updated and easy to follow tutorial on how to drill sea glass take a look at this article: How To Drill Through Glass (Infographic) or read on...

Take a look at Liliana's video from Liliana Designs to see how she does it! Please note in the below video it is suggested to use a speed of around 20,000 rpm, this speed is incorrect and should be on your drills lowest setting.

What You Will need:

Disclaimer. Using rotary tools near water has never been,
to the best of our knowledge, endorsed by any of the rotary tool
manufacturers. If you do choose to drill near water or with attachments
under water connected to your drill then you do so at your own risk.
Please be aware that mixing electricity and water can be very dangerous.

Step 1

Mark your sea glass with your entrance and exit hole. Set up your water dish, either an ice cream tub or some form of solid tray with a piece of wood/rubber or blu-tac to hold the sea glass on whilst drilling. It will need to be deep enough to allow about a centimetre of water above the piece of glass when you have placed it onto the wood/tac and in the water tray . Select your drill bit and attach to your flex shaft/drill press.

Step 2

Whilst keeping your sea glass immersed in water and holding your sea glass, start your drilling. Go slow to begin with to prevent the drill bit skittering across the surface. Make sure to move the drill bit up and down to allow water to flush in and out of the hole to remove the drilling debris and to keep the area and the drill bit cool. Overheating can cause the diamonds to come off the drill bit and the material you are drilling to shatter.

Step 3

Once you have drilled about halfway through flip the sea glass over and begin drilling again from the other side where you have marked. If you were to drill straight through there may be a possibility of chipping your exit hole.

Step 4

If you discover the hole needs opening up further use one of our twist drills to do so.